
Speedship by WWEX
Unifying Two Broker Systems and a Company Culture Through Design
Role:
Product Design Lead – User Research, Product Architecture and Visual Design System
Team:
6 UX + 2 Client UX
1 PM
4 FE
3 BE
Timeline:
1.5 years
Impact:
National research initiative · Lead team of 8 · Org-wide design principles · Laid foundation for FTL workflows resulting in $4B merger
In 2018, Worldwide Express merged with Unishippers, prompting the unification of their small parcel and LTL shipment systems into one scalable, white-label-ready platform.
Early planning exposed a core issue: leadership lacked clarity on who their customers were—or how the product would support them and streamline internal operations.
My Role
Led product design strategy and architecture, serving as the primary design partner on the Speedship initiative.
Co-led a national research initiative, guiding user interviews, contextual inquiries and affinity diagramming across the U.S.
Developed foundational design assets that transformed the organization’s understanding of its users including architecture and systems
Influenced executive mindset and cross-functional priorities, ensuring product strategy was informed by external realities vs internal assumptions.
This was an organizational identity challenge, and I helped reposition the entire initiative to keep users at the center.
Massive Overhaul!
WWEX had an incredibly long list of desired features but lacked alignment around a shared vision for the user. With two legacy platforms to reconcile, the team faced multiple pressures:
Resolve conflicting assumptions about who the users were
Reduce risks in a high-investment development roadmap
Establish scalable workflows to support future ambitions of expansion into Full Truckload (FTL) shipments
Bridge cultural differences between two merged organizations
Initially, executives were confident in their perspective. Research was seen as optional. My goal swiftly became to shift that thinking and mitigate risk in development cycles.
Strategic Insight
The findings were consistent—and impossible to ignore:
Users didn’t want more features. They needed better orientation and clearer guidance as In-product onboarding was ineffective, creating blind spots during account setup and training
Inputs were equally painful for frequent and infrequent users, for different reasons.
Support teams were overwhelmed, fielding unnecessary volumes of tickets caused by poor user experience.
These insights were a blind spot for leadership assumptions, but when early contextual data points were presented, the data could not be dismissed.
Execution
Outcomes
Design principles and persona became embedded in the culture, used across meetings, printed on posters, presented in national conferences and adopted far beyond the product org
Executive and stakeholder alignment shifted, with product planning and prioritization now grounded in user needs. (In fact, their trust grew so much I was asked to return to the project after being reassigned to Sprint - to assist them in rigorous prioritization work at the beginning of 2020.)
Reduced onboarding friction and improved support operations, as clearer workflows led to fewer misaligned interactions, and internal flows were given adequate attention and investment.
Platform formed the basis of WWEX’s eventual merger with GlobalTranz, enabling the formation of a $4B logistics platform
Validation
Multiple workflows tested with real users for usability and desirability.
Reflection
This project was about more than building a unified product. It was about building a unified vision.
By reframing discovery as a strategic asset—not just a design step—we helped WWEX understand its users, recalibrate its roadmap, and set the stage for significant growth.